Digital skills for the accounting and finance profession: evidence from online job advertisements in Hong Kong and Singapore

Abstract Lack of digital skills among job applicants has been a significant factor that prevents them from taking advantage of many career opportunities in an increasingly digitalized economy. Knowing what digital skills are currently required by employers would be important for addressing the skill shortage. In this study, we apply the natural language processing techniques to analyze digital skill requirements in online job advertisements from three data sources. All three sources provide the full text of job advertisements in which employers describe the required skills or qualifications for the advertised positions. We observe consistent evidence on the demand for digital skills in all three samples in recent years: the percentage of jobs requiring digital skills typically ranges between 20% and 30%. A few digital skills are consistently in high demand through the study period. There are substantial overlaps but also clear differences in the digital skills that are required for accounting and finance professionals. We also find strong similarity and some differences in digital skill requirements between Singapore and Hong Kong. The findings from our study can provide valuable evidence to inform curriculum planning and career preparation for college education and professional training in accounting and finance disciplines in both economies. Impact statement Digital technologies that appeared in the new millennium, such as artificial intelligence, blockchains, machine learning, robot advisors, robotic process applications, etc., are reshaping job scope and daily routines of accounting and finance professionals. Lack of digital skills among job applicants has been a significant factor that prevents them from taking advantage of many career opportunities in an increasingly digitalized economy. Knowing what digital skills are currently required by employers would be essential for addressing this skill shortage. In this study, we apply the natural language processing techniques to analyze digital skills that employers explicitly require in online job advertisements. We find that the percentage of jobs requiring digital skills ranges from 20% to 30% in recent years and a few digital skills are consistently in high demand through the study period. These findings can provide valuable evidence to inform curriculum planning and career preparation for college education and professional training.